Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

92 The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth

pi. 4). In the centre sits Hera on a handsome throne, the seat of which is seen from
below (cp. supra ii. 738 fig. 668), with a footstool. She is attired in an Ionic chitdn and a
himdtion drawn over her head. She has a profusion of trinkets (stephdne, ear-ring,
finger-rings, necklace, bracelet) and is shod with strap-work shoes. Her right hand pulls
forward her himdtion; her left, with spread fingers, presses her naked breast, which is
being sucked vigorously by Herakles. He is a bearded man with a broad fillet on his hair,
a lion-skin round his neck, a short chiton about his waist, and a knotty club in his right
hand. He leans over the goddess' lap to play the infant's part. To the right of these two
stands Zeus, with himdtion, shoes, and sceptre, signing to a young undraped goddess,
who wears a large necklace with pendants of three drops (cp. //. 14. [83, Od. 18. 298
Tply\-qva /topbevTa) and, like Zeus, displays two leaves stuck in her hair. To the left stands
Apollon with chlamys, bay-wreath, and bay-branch. In the background an older goddess
appears in three-quarter position: she wears a stephdne, a necklace with pendants, and a
himdtion like that of Hera (there is indeed some confusion between the two) drawn over
her head. Behind Hera's throne is an Ionic pillar supporting a tablet inscribed eca :
sren : \ tva : i%na \ c : hercle : | unial : cl\an : Bra : see. The only words at present
intelligible to us, hercle: unial: clan, denote 'Hercules son of Uni (Iuno)' and certainly
suggest that the inscription is a label explaining the scene rather than a votive dedication
involving other names. They do not of course justify Ptolemy Chennos of Alexandreia
(c. roo a.d.) in his paradoxical notion that Herakles was the son of Zeus and Hera(Ptol.
nov. hist. 3 p. 186, 28 ft". Westermann ap. Phot. bibl. p. 148 a 38 ff. Bekker rlvos iarlv 6
vfivos 6 fSofievos iv Q-qPaiois (I. Bekker cj. e?j/3cus) eis "B.pa.K\ta, h $ (either read

\4yerat or, less probably, supply the author MaT/>is 6 Qripaios vp.voypa<pos from the context
and suppose a direct quotation of the following words) Atds not "Hpas vlbs). The whole
composition is enclosed between an upper and a lower band of herring-bone pattern.
Above is a bald Silenos, with pig's ears, drinking from a phidle. He sprawls along the
upper line, and from his incredibly clumsy neck I should infer that the artist had at first
intended him to be an upright head (cp. Gerhard Etr. Spiegel pi. 212) or one of two (cp.
ib. pi. 291, A), but had later altered him into a recumbent figure (cp. ib. pi. 323). Below
is Eros, crouching almost en face, with a bulla slung round his throat and an ovoid object
(egg? ball?) in either hand, (c) An early third-century mirror from Vulci, now at
Berlin, introduces some variations and adds names (C. Robert in the Arch. Zeit. 1882
xl. 173, A. Furtwangler ib. 1883 xli. 271, Gerhard Etr. Spiegel v. 72 f. pi. 59 (=my
fig. 34), J. Bayet op. cit. p. 151 ft", no. F). Herakles {Hercle) sits on a low stool, beardless
but adult and equipped with lion-skin and club. He is about to suck the right nipple of
Hera {Uni), who stoops towards him with bared breast, clasping him with her right hand
and holding a horn (cp. supra ii. 347 fig. '241) in her left. Behind Herakles sits Mean
raising two sprigs of olive, bent to form a wreath for the hero. In the background stands
Zeus (Tinia), his head surrounded by two streamers and a lotiform bolt visible at his right
side. He is flanked on his right by Aphrodite (Turan), on his left by Athena (Merva, a
mistake for Meni-oa) with aigls, GorgSneion, and shield bearing a star. Below is a large
female head between two stars. These three mirrors clearly postulate a common original,
perhaps a fifth-century fresco, from which is also descended—with sundry important
modifications—a Ukythos of ' Apulian' style found at Anxia (Anzi di Basilicata) and now
in the British Museum (G. Minervini in the Bull. d. Inst. 1842 p. 160, id. in the Bull.
Arch. Nap. 1842—1843 i. 6 f., id. 11 mito di Ercole che succhia il latle di Giunone Napoli
1854 pp. 1—34 with pi. (extr. from the Memorie delta /tegale Accademia Ercolanense
Napoli 1853 vi. 317 ft.), Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Hera p. 141 no. l, G. Korte in
Gerhard Etr. Spiegel v. 76 ft*., Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases iv. 60 no. F 107). Herakles is here
reduced to the proportions of a boy and has lost his lion-skin and club. But that he and
no other is meant appears from the presence of his patroness Athena (aigis, spear), who
offers Hera a lily—not, as Minervini thought, in allusion to the later legend of the Milky
Way (supra i. 624 n. 5), but merely as the favourite flower of the goddess (supra i. 624
n. 2, ii. 515 n. 10) and a fitting reward for her services. Hera herself is a queenly figure,
seated with a floral stephdne on her head and a lily-topped sceptre in her hand. She presses